Oh So Modern A B&B story
by Grace Grants
Summary: Ever wondered what Beauty and the Beast would be like in the modern world? A teenager named Lucas is in for an adventurous journey as anything other than himself when a fortune teller misreads him! Reading Project, for any of my readers :
1. Chapter 1

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Hello, everyone! *hides* I'm so sorry for not updating for like SIX months. :O THIS (this story) among other things that have been counting towards my grades and social life (lol) have kept me so busy that I haven't found much time to write at all, let alone read or anything.

But, this story is the main project I've been working on for I think two months now (?) for my Reading class. There's only going to be two "Chapters" because even with all the time I spent on it, I never even got this story half way done. The second part (chapter) is going to be an overview of the rest of the book.

Thanks a bunch for reading, everyone, and I really hope that this helps satisfy your reading urge from me for just a little while.

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Chapter 1

Awake as… me

The alarm buzzed and I groaned.

I groaned.

I didn't grunt, I didn't snarl, and I didn't growl. I groaned.

I groaned like a human.

Carefully, I moved my right upper limb. It was long, slender, and lanky. Next I silently prayed that I would find my fingers instead of the hoof that I had fallen asleep with.

A tingling sensation shot up my arm. That was my first finger, at least. Oh, thumbs, oh I REALLY hoped I had opposable thumbs.

Another flash of feeling told me that indeed, I did.

Oh no. Now I was narrowing down my options. There were two left, and one was heaven and the other would be hell.

The real question here was, "Am I human again?"

Slowly, and cautiously, I crept my hand and arm toward my face. It didn't feel furry, which was a good sign. Lifting it off the bed, I closed my eyes and let it hover there. At this point, I hadn't seen my hand this morning.

Now or never, right? Let's get this over with.

I blinked, focusing my vision. There, in front of me, was a human, flesh hand.

It was my hand.

I clenched it into a fist, grinning. Opening it again, memories came with the sensation of real skin stretching, but for now I blocked them.

I was human again, which meant that I had another chance.

Quickly, I jumped out of bed and pulled on some clothes, dark jeans and a long sleeve shirt that was striped red and black. I looked at myself in the mirror. There was my pale skin, dark, straight hair that was getting long enough to touch my emerald green eyes. The back of my hair stood up a bit, but I just left it like that. I needed all the time I could get today to find just one person, just one girl.

That was the last part of this stupid curse that had been put on me. After I got a girl to love me, I would be set free and never turn into an animal again. As I thought about this, I let myself finally remember the rest of my human memories. I couldn't keep them back any longer.

Six Months Ago

"Think you have enough makeup on your face today, Sarah?" I sneered as I set my tray of food on the lunch table.

Sarah Calry sat diagonally across the table from me, snickering gossip with Becky until I had spoken to her.

"Hey! Lucas!" She produced a sugar sweet, lip-gloss-coated smile across her face. Then she batted her unnaturally long and navy blue eyelashes at me as I sat down.

"What were you saying about my makeup?" She asked, trying to be cute.

Girls like these ones, or maybe it was just Sarah, drove me insane.

"I was just saying that you don't need gallons of makeup for school." I didn't say it kindly.

Her smile faulted for a moment, and then became an angry pucker.

"Well, you, you don't need… need…" She fumed angrily. "Come on, Becky."

Sarah and Becky stalked away from the table as Guy and Matt sat down in their now-empty places.

Guy laughed lightly, his crystal blue eyes sparkling. "Scare 'em away just to get us a seat, eh?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. "Or was that just you causing Sarah's fit of the day?"

"Both," I replied, grinning. Some people called me mean, or uncaring, but Guy always suck by me, even when I was mean, he wouldn't ever be that way too, but instead he would just stop me. I didn't care either way. We just had our differences.

I looked over to Matt, with his brown hair and blue streaks with brown eyes.

Guy had golden hair in a choppy style.

"So what's been going on with you two today?" I leaned back in my chair.

Later

As I closed my locker, Lynn opened hers beside me. She had a bright neon green stack of flyers balanced on her notebook.

"What's up with the flyers?" I asked her, leaning against the lockers.

Lynn was a quiet girl with dark burgundy hair and pale green eyes. We'd known each other since we were little kids, and she was probably my second best friend, right after Guy.

"Oh, these?" She had already stuffed them under a few books on the top shelf of her locker. Shifting her things to one arm, she pulled one out for me to see.

Before she handed them to me she hesitated.

"What's the matter?" I asked her curiously.

"Just promise me that you won't go to my Grandma's fortune telling shop, okay? That's what the flyers are about. My mom was being over-enthusiastic about it and made flyers that she expects me to hand out as school." She rolled her eyes as she handed me the paper. "Right, like I would advertise my crazy Grandma's fortune-telling business, because that's what every kid does."

I glanced at the bright colored page.

It read:

Madam Uzlezi

Telling Fortunes and much, much more!

Come find out your destiny at the Madam's Sanctuary,

Located at:

2063 Chester Avenue

Seattle, Washington

45092

It had a few other crafty advertising squares with prices and other promoting deals.

"Hm," I glanced at Lynn.

"Oh no," Lynn said. "You're not _really_ thinking of going there, are you?"

I gave her a smirk and raised one eyebrow.

"What's the worst that could happen?" I asked, shrugging and folding up the paper. I slid it in my pocket.

"My Grandma is… well, she's just weird. Don't get me wrong, I lover her, but she kind of scares me."

"Why? Or do you just think I'll think you're weird too, if I see her?"

"No, but I would like it if you don't judge me," She paused.

I rolled my eyes. "Lynn, come on, you're one of the only people I _don't_ judge."

She smiled. "Thank you."

"Anyway, why are you 'scared of her'?" I made air quotes as we walked down the hall to our next class, which was science.

"It's just freaky because most of her fortunes, readings, or anything else she does… comes true." She shrugged. "It's just strange."

I started to laugh. Lynn punched me in the arm.

"Hey, it's not funny," She said, smiling.

"Of course not, it's just funny that, you believe that," I said. She hit me again. "Oh, come on Lynn, you totally sounded paranoid there." I smiled at her.

"Well, yeah, I guess I did, just a little bit, huh?"

"How about you and me, tonight, get our fortunes read. Or maybe something else, I can't remember what all was on the flyer."

"Noooo way." Lynn crossed her arms.

"Aw, fun killer!" I pouted. "Just once, then we'll go to the all or go out to eat or something."

She bit her lip and looked to the side, considering it for several moments. It looked sort of like she was remembering things and weighing her opinions.

"Okay, fine," she sighed. "But then you're going shopping with me."

"And how about dinner?" I accepted.

"Max and Erma's," She replied.

"Awesome, I'll pay," I said happily.

Lynn glanced at me with a shocked expression.

"What, did you want to pay?" I asked raising my eyebrows.

"No, no," she held up her hands. "You're just not usually this willing"

"I don't usually get my way that easily with you," I shrugged and grinned at her. "Something to celebrate."

This earned me another whack on the arm.

Later (that Evening)

We met at Lynn's house, which was about three blocks from her grandmother's fortune-telling "sanctuary".

"Let's just walk there," Lynn said as she pulled on a light jacket. It was a little chilly, being November.

"Good idea, smarty, seeing as though neither of us can drive, since we don't have a car." I pointed out.

"Lucas, shut up, okay?" She looked annoyed. "I don't even want to be going there."

We'd made it about a block and I saw an alleyway up ahead.

"Hey, you said your Grandma's house was on Chester Avenue, right?" I asked her.

"Yeah…" She looked at me suspiciously, and then followed my line of sight. "You wanna take a shortcut, don't you?"

"Yeah, and it looks like this leads right over to Chester," I said stepping into the narrow space between two apartment buildings. I saw a car go by at the opening on the other end, which was about 20 meters away.

"Lucas." Lynn gave me a skeptical look, "It's only _three_ blocks."

"Don't be so un-adventurous, Lynn," I said, walking a few more steps into the dim alleyway.

She stayed outside the passage and crossed her arms.

"Oh, come_ on_," I urged. It was dusk outside, and it seemed the shadows from the trashcans in the alleyway got longer with each passing second.

Finally, after a moment's stare-down, she shook her head, made a disgusted noise, and started to walk hastily into the alley. I triumphantly smiled while matching her quickened strides.

"I've been letting you get your way _too _much, Lucas." She rolled her eyes. I just laughed, but I could tell by her posture she was extremely tense, maybe even scared.

Halfway through the shortcut, in only a matter of 30 seconds, we heard a loud thump of a trashcan falling over. Lynn screamed, I jumped away and froze. Both of us were pressed against one wall of the alley as we stared at the small figure, huddled and trembling on the other side.

After a brief silence Lynn moved first.

"Lucas," she almost whispered. "I think it's a kid."

I stole a glace at her. Her eyes had softened and she slumped her shoulders a bit.

"What are you talking about? Why the hell would a random kid be in a dark alley way like this?" I tried to reason with her. Outside the alley the streetlights flickered to life.

"Hey," she said softly to the smallish human-shaped lump.

It snapped its head up to look at her. His eyes were glossy with fear. His face was drenched wet with tears and smudged with dirt. He had straight, chocolate-colored hair and dark brown eyes.

"P-please don't-t hurt me." He said in a high, hoarse, six-year-old voice.

"Shh," Lynn said, slowly extending her hand. "Tell me, how did you get here?" She flipped her hand over and up again to signal to the child that she didn't have any weapon.

"I just wanted to see the kitty, and I fell," a sob broke loose from his tiny chest.

"Did you lose your parents?" Lynn asked in a calm but understanding tone.

"Y-yes," he sniffled.

"Alright," Lynn nodded to him. "Well-" and she paused, looking for something to call him. "What's your name?"

"Blake." The boy whimpered.

"Blake, I will not hurt you, you can trust Lucas and I, we just want to help you find your parents, okay?"

"Whoa, Lynn," I interjected, trying to find my voice again.

She glanced at me.

"We can't just take this kid," I told her. She looked at me like I had just spoken in another language. Then her expression turned to anger.

"Lucas, he's a lost little boy. What do you expect us to do with him?" She could hardly suppress the venom in her voice.

"His parents have got to be around, they'll find him, what if we take him and make him even more lost than he already is?"

_Worse yet, _I thought, _what are we going to do with him if he never gets "found" and has to stay with us?_

"So you want us to just leave him here?" She sounded repulsed by the very thought. "Never mind, Lucas, I don't want to hear your answer. No, I'm not just leaving this child her alone."

"Lynn-" I started.

"No!" She turned to me. "This is going too far, you can't just leave a little kid alone in an alley way!"

Suddenly I didn't have anything to say.

Lynn gave me one last silencing glance and then turned back to Blake.

"Will you come with me, Blake?" I can take you to the police's station where they'll help us find your parents."

"The police? The one's in the uniforms who beat the bad guys?" he said, scrunching his face up a bit.

"Yep, those are the ones," Lynn said smiling, despite the situation. "The also help find missing people, like your parents." She held out her hand for the boy to take.

He grabbed it with his own, miniature hand, and pulled himself up.

"Come on," she said gently. She stared to lead him out the way that we had come. Then she realized that I wasn't following her.

"Lynn, I'm not getting wrapped up in this," I put my hands up, as if in defense. "I'm sorry."

"I'm not the one you should be sorry for," She responded. I glanced at the kid. Blake was trembling and clutching Lynn's hand as if she would disappear if he didn't hang on to her. I watched both of them until they turned to walk back towards Lynn's house.

Trying to think clearly, I subconsciously turned and walked out of the alley the other way.

A glowing, bright-red paper lantern caught my attention as soon as I stepped onto Chester Avenue. A little ways to the left and across the street was none other than Madam Uzlezi's fortune-telling shop, our original destination.

Something drew me too the house like a moth to a flame. I didn't really think, and I didn't know why I decided to go there, but sure enough, suddenly I heard a chime sound as I opened the door.

The shop was just based out of a regular Asian-style house that had two stories. The inside was painted deep red and was illuminated by a mix of scented candles and modern lights built into the ceiling, probably set on dim. The floor had light brown tile covering it.

I inhaled a few breaths and a feeling spread through my body with the oxygen that I had just consumed. It made me extremely calm.

"Ah!" An older, short, plump lady with a green robe-type dress appeared from a hallway farther back. Her grey hair was neatly pinned back into a bun. Her face was big and wide with wrinkles and she had big grey-green eyes. "A young gentlemen lost on his path of life, eh?" She raised a thin grey eyebrow and studied me from a meter away.

"I guess you could say that," I admitted. Why was I here again?" It was awkward, standing even just this close to this lady that I was dwarfing. I must've been underestimating my height. Sure, I was about 6'2'', maybe less, but that would make this lady only about 4 feet tall. She was tiny.

"Come with me, come with me," She said and beckoned with her hand as she started into a doorway on my left. I cautiously followed her.

"Sit," she demanded. WE were in a medium-sized room, it wasn't too big, but it definitely wasn't small. It had the same red walls and tile, as the entry hall and the only light were still the mix of candles and dim, round lights in the ceiling. She was pointing to a mat in front of a low wooden table.

I did as I was told as she took up the mat on the other side of the polished table.

"My name is Madam Uzlezi, if you didn't already know, and may I ask, what reading shall I be giving you today, dear Lucas?" Madam Uzlezi had a shrill, but raspy voice. It didn't sound annoying, but it sure was particular.

"How do you know my name?" I asked suspiciously.

"Lynn has described you before," She responded evenly.

After a moment the Madam continued, "There are three that I can offer you today: a palm reading, a past reading, or a future reading. The palm reading will tell me what you truly are inside your soul, your future reading will tell me what it is you shall accomplish, and your past reading shall show me your mistakes and how to fix them. Also," She smirked "we do have a special deal gong on, $20 for an "All Three Reading"."

"Um," I thought for a moment. "I'll just stick with a palm reading first."

(These notes were to my reading teacher)

**Notes: **This story isn't completed, and I am sorry about that. I'm going to put the plot outline after these notes that I've written so far. The next part would have many more details, seeing as though it's only an overview. The story probably would have taken me about three more months to write, and about twenty more pages, approximately. Thank you for grading what I have so far.

The other reason I never finished it is because I have writer's block on this story. The words just wouldn't come naturally, and in my opinion, I'd much rather give you my work that is short (and good, since I put a lot of effort in this first part) than my work that is bad.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it.

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Alright, well this ISN'T the end, I promise. The next part is an overview, outline, what ever you want to call it.

Please review if you'd like to :)

And also, tell me if you'd like me to post some one-shots (sort of like this) that I've just created. They'd just be Misc. because they don't really involve any characters from any other stories, although you can picture them as other characters. ^_^

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	2. Chapter 2

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Alright everyone, so if you've grown to like (or hate) Lucas, and want to know what happens to him, then here's the overview to the end.

I hope you enjoy this little piece of my hard work in my (crazy) Reading class. :D

And I hope you enjoy!

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**Next in the story **(An overview of the rest of the story):

Madam Uzlezi does a palm reading and she sees something suspicious within Lucas's soul. She does a past reading and finds out what happened with Lynn, Blake, and Lucas back in the alleyway. Seeing this, she doesn't do a future reading, but gets infuriated at Lucas and puts a curse on him. Lucas protests, and tries to explain his reasoning, but all of a sudden he is extremely dizzy. He ends up passing out.

Lucas wakes up in an alleyway. He tries to rub his head, because it was resting on the pavement. When he scratches it though, he notices that he can't feel his thumb and his arms we're really stiff, like they wouldn't rotate like they should. He looked down warily, only to realize that beneath him was a set of paws. Lucas had been turned into a dog.

Once he calms down, he starts thinking about how this could have happened to him. A flashback occurred, but it had a memory with it that he didn't remember at all. Lynn's grandmother had put a curse on him and then, after he passed out, she told him what he would have to do to break the curse. She said it all sarcastically, because the things she said that were required to break the curse were hard, and she didn't believe that he could do them.

He had to do three things to become a human again:

Save a life

Befriend someone that seemed lower that him, and realize that they were equal

Have a girl fall in love with him

He decided, after much thought, that those things were really the only things that he could do, so he set off to go look for a "friend".

The story explains a bit of what Lucas goes through and what he thinks when he lives the hard life of a stray dog. Eventually, he stumbles upon a lonely kitten. The kitten is ratty but innocent. It was the type of cat that he wouldn't have even noticed when he was human. But he noticed it getting chased by a small yappy dog. He simply barked at the other dog, and it ran away as fast as it could.

Lucas didn't even realize he had helped the kitten until he saw that it was following him through the streets of Seattle. He leaves leftover food for it until it comes out, again and again. The kitten hides from him as it stalks him. Though, in a few days it begins to trust Lucas, and they walk together, eat together, and play together as Lucas tries to find an animal or person to befriend. He can't talk to it, because he doesn't understand it, but they become companions anyway.

(The entire time, Lucas still has all his memories and human thoughts.)

Finally, when he watches the kitten sleeping one night, all curled up next to him, he suddenly falls asleep himself. When he wakes up, the kitten is on top of him licking his face. He notices something odd about the way he feels, and tries to roll over and get up. He notices that he's a lot longer and more flexible than he was the night before.

At this point, Lucas has turned into a human again. Somewhere inside of him, he knows that the curse is still there, though. Then he suddenly realizes that it's not _inside_ him at all. He has the ears of a dog, still. They're droopy, and black, the same color as his hair, so they aren't too noticeable. Quickly, he knows that he could probably turn into an animal again. He's not going to go home with dog-ears, either, so he quickly tries to clean up (he has all his original clothing and the things in his clothing with him). He buys a hat, and asks people where the nearest small rental is.

It's a fairly poor part of town, so there are plenty of places there to rent, buy, and etc. He's still in Seattle, but he's quite a ways across town, on the opposite outskirts, where no one knows him, and no one he knows lives there. Luckily, being 17, he had a job and kept most of his money in his wallet and on him at all times. (He's currently carrying around $650 with him, about $200 in cash and an un-cashed paycheck.)

He sees a nice, but extremely small upper-level room that has an entrance from the outside. It's hidden in an alleyway, and cut off from most people, so he asks the owners, an old grandpa and grandma who smoke and have a few screws loose, how much a month rental would be. They just ask how much he's got, and lying, knowing that they don't really care, he tells him he only has $250. They say that that'll do, for 31 days, and they won't bother him a bit. They even took out the door that connects it too the rest of the house on the inside and just sealed it off.

So now Lucas has got a (small and cramped) dorm-room-sized apartment with a tiny bathroom. It's not in bad condition, at all. The whole place would be nice, other than it's tiny size. That's exactly what Lucas needed though.

The first night there, he falls asleep and wakes up this time, as a Jaguar. He has to wait a week and eat mice in the alleyway for food before he changes into a regular stray cat.

All the while, Lucas brought the small kitten with him. He takes care of it as best as he can, and it stays attached to him at all times because he cares for it.

Saving a life:

In a huge, flooding thunderstorm, he saves a mouse from getting sucked into a sewer, and when he can eat it and the storm is nearly over, he leaves it and walks away. This earns him another human transformation. The catch is, that he has a cat's tail attached right above his bottom! This time, he gets supplies quickly, like food, water, and a few other items he needed. He stays human for almost two weeks, double the time he stayed human the first part of the curse.

Just when he turns into a bird, and thinks that it's all over, he suddenly turns into a human with wings. The next two days stay like this, but then at night he transforms into a lion. His curse seems to be going hey-wire and crazy, since he has two thirds of the curse broken, but not the last part.

On one of his excursions as a human, trying to find out what to do about a girl loving him, he meets Grace at the Library. She's sweet, funny, and wants to see him again in a week. He told her that he would leave a note between two specific books in the library, saying when, where or if he could or not. She could write back and tell him things as well. The first time they met, they had taken a walk and had some coffee together before Lucas had to go, since night was nearing, and he always seemed to change only at night. They began to get to know each other better, and had each other anticipating there next visit.

The story goes on like this, and Grace notices some odd things about Lucas. She finally finds out that he is always part animal when he's human, but oddly, doesn't question it. (They have been meeting for about 3 months by now. Lucas only had another month until he couldn't pay the rent anymore, since he wasn't making any money). When she figures this out, they're at a park, far back, and mainly alone.

Grace admits that she knew something odd was going on the moment they met. She could, as she put it, _feel_ it. Then she admits that she doesn't care, because she loves him, and his personality, his quirks, and just everything about him.

Suddenly the horns he had on his head were gone, and he started to glow slightly. A voice sounded off in the distance, and he recognized it immediately as Madam Uzlezi's.

"You've really changed, Lucas." It rang out. "I think I misunderstood you and your soul when I read it. So the curse has been broken, now go tell my granddaughter that you're all right. She's been worried sick." All the while, the old woman's voice crackled and laughed, as if she really was amazed, but amused by him at the same time.

Lucas ran over and twirled grace around in a giant hug. He then explained everything to her, finally. He told her about Madam Uzlezi, Lynn, and the boy in the alleyway. He realized just how much different he was.

The events of breaking the curse had really softened him.

Grace told him that the fortuneteller was wrong. He wasn't a bad person to begin with, but his bad side was over-ruling his good side at the time.

Lucas thanked her, for understanding and going through it all with him. He told her that he doesn't regret anything about changing though, and he wants to be a new person now, the person that he's become.

They were silent for a moment and then suddenly Grace asked what was the lost little boy's name, and what he looked like.

After answering, Lucas made a comment that he wish he could've apologized to the boy, or at least known if he was okay.

Grace told him to come with her, but she wouldn't tell him why. They arrived at a house, and grace knocked. Lucas didn't complain, and didn't run away this time. He kept asking her, but she just told him to wait and see.

A little boy answered the door. It was Blake.

"Lucas, this is my little brother, Blake Grants." She told him. Lucas bent down to the little boy.

The boy said that he remembered Lucas, and remembered that he left Lynn and himself, but he also said how much Lynn had said about him. Blake said that Lynn had told him about Lucas, and how he was nice, deep, deep, DEEP down.

Lucas gave Blake a sincere apology, and when Blake told him he forgave him, he hugged him. The new Lucas did something the old Lucas would have never done. He hugged him back, and he really meant the hug, because, he cared.

**That's the end of the story, but then there's a little epilogue type chapter/section, as well. **

Lucas finally goes back home, and he explains everything. Lynn helps him explain, because she believed him fully, knowing her grandmother. The grandmother herself confessed to doing it, so that was all resolved. Grace also came with Lucas, and he introduced her to his family, as his girlfriend.

Lynn was so happy to see Lucas. She ran up and gave him a hug, then punched him in the arm for making her worry so much. As she did this though, she had tears in her eyes, and she smiled.

Lynn remained Lucas's best friend, and liked the real, new Lucas even more than she liked the old one.

Grace and Lucas saw each other all the time, and even went to the same college together. After that they stayed in Seattle, but traveled a little bit and spent the rest of their lives with each other.

**The End**

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So... how was it? :) This is my first story that I can mark "complete" on the edit page of fanfiction, yet I feel guilty because it's really not complete at all. :O

Please review! I'd love to hear what you thought of it.

By the way, don't be stupid and take my work, please. I spent a lot of time on this, and just wanted some other critics. I love fanfiction for that reason, that you can get reviews and critics by so many different people in different places. :)

Also, my Reading teacher suggested that I enter it in a contest or try to finish it and (depending how long it is) and even get it published. She thinks I could really go places with this story (lol). Personally, I don't know if I'm ready to put that much effort into it. :P :)

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